Rethinking autonomism

Beauty in a world of moral anarchy

Bibliographic Data

ID5145395
AuthorsAdriana Clavel-Vázquez (0000-0002-0517-032X, University of Sheffield, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume13
Issue7
Publication date2018-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePhilosophy Compass (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1747-9991 • E-ISSN: 1747-9991
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/phc3.12501
OpenAlexW2800758027
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited21

Advocates of the ethical criticism of art claim that works' ethical defects or merits have an impact on their aesthetic value. Against ethical critics, autonomists claim that moral criteria should not be part of the considerations when evaluating works of art as art. Autonomism refers to the view that an artwork's aesthetic value is independent from its ethical value. The purpose of this paper is to examine how autonomism has been defended in the contemporary discussion in analytic aesthetics. I present three versions of autonomism: Richard Posner's radical autonomism, James C. Anderson and Jeffrey T. Dean, and James Harold's moderate autonomism, and Francisca Pérez Carreño's robust autonomism. I argue that robust autonomism offers a stronger argument against the ethical critic. However, I point to some difficulties for Pérez Carreño's account and conclude by suggesting how further work in autonomism might go around them

Aesthetic value · Aesthetics · Art · Art criticism · Art history · Beauty · Criticism · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Ethical theories · Literature · Performance art · Sociology · Work of art · Aesthetic Perception and Analysis · Ethics, Aesthetics, and Art · Philosophy · Visual Culture and Art Theory

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub